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Machinery condition assessment moduleRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Measuring, Calibrating, Or Testing, Measurement System, Remote Supervisory MonitoringMachinery condition assessment module description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070073521, Machinery condition assessment module. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/146,853, filed Jun. 7, 2005. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to monitoring systems for machinery. More particularly, the invention relates to a monitoring system that is readily integrated into a standard industrial control architecture. [0003] Industrial controllers are special purpose computers that are used for the control of industrial processes or manufacturing equipment. Under the direction of a stored program, the industrial controller examines a series of inputs representing the state of the controlled process and changes outputs effecting the control of the process. The inputs and outputs may be binary, for example, on or off, or alternately, analog inputs and outputs taking on a continuous range of values. The inputs are typically from sensors including limit switches and the like, and the outputs may be provided to actuators, motors, and the like. [0004] Normally, the components of an industrial process are spatially distributed about the factory or manufacturing facility. The industrial controller may communicate with these components via one or more remote I/O modules connected to the industrial controller through a specially designed control network such as ControlNet, DeviceNet or Ethernet/IP whose specifications are published and whose protocols are used broadly by a number of manufacturers and suppliers. These communication networks are characterized by being highly reliable and delivering data with a minimal and well-characterized delay as required for real-time control and may be implimented on dedicated network media, backplanes of devices, and/or wirelessly. [0005] The machines of an industrial process may be monitored with monitoring equipment to assess the health of the machinery on a real-time basis and to predict and possibly avoid expensive failure. Such monitoring systems typically use high data-rate sensors, such as accelerometers and the like that may be, for example, attached to a bearing or journal to provide vibration data that may reflect impending equipment failure. [0006] These sensors normally are wired to a signal processing engine that continually measures the signal and processes out key information from it. These signal processing engines are often linked to common computers, usually by standard Ethernet interfaces, that execute specialized software that can further process the data and provide a report to a user. Depending on the sophistication of the software system, the report will either provide the data necessary for an expert to evaluate the machines health, and/or it will, after applying a set of rules, provide its own evaluation of the machines condition. Vibration data, for example, may be analyzed for specific frequency components which might indicate wear of bearings used in high-speed machines or shaft misalignment. These computer systems and, more specifically, the sophisticated software required can be very expensive and requires a continuing investment in time-consuming operation by experts. Further, such systems are not typically real time systems. Most require data be uploaded from the protection monitors are defined schedules and the data or reports evaluated by experts sometime later. Few systems are integrated with operations such that data is evaluated and meaningful results immediately provided to the machine's operators immediately when changes are detected. [0007] The problems associated with installing a monitoring system have been significantly reduced by the development of a set of "modular" signal processing engines, (also called monitoring modules) described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,662,118; 6,768,949; and 6,912,484, all incorporated by reference, that connect directly to the networks normally used in industrial control systems. Such connection allows monitoring to use the same communications infrastructure already present in many industrial control environments and further allows data to be communicated directly with a programmable logic controller, so that corrective action may be automatically initiated. [0008] Each signal processing engine provides interface circuitry for the control network and for the type of sensors used in protection or monitoring applications, for example, accelerometers and high-speed displacement transducers. Importantly, the signal processing engines provide for pre-processing of the sensor data, for example, performing Fourier transform of accelerometer data and analyzing the spectrum against pre-defined bandwidths and amplitude or power thresholds. In this way, the high data-rate vibration data, for example, need not be communicated directly over the control network but rather only low data-rate "dynamic condition data" need be communicated. For example, vibration data is not transmitted but only dynamic condition data indicating that a particular frequency threshold has been exceeded. This prevents degradation of the control network's function of providing real-time control. [0009] To provide flexibility, the signal processing engines normally have alterable configuration data, for example, defining particular frequency limits or bands describing the pre-processing to be performed by the signal processing engines. [0010] While such signal processing engines are a considerable advance in simplifying and integrating machine monitoring into an industrial control system, they still require considerable expertise for configuring the signal processing engines and programming the industrial controller to interpret the operating assessments, particularly for installations where multiple signal processing engines are required. For example, some forms of failure detection may require monitoring of axial and radial acceleration at different points in the operation of the machine in different frequency bands depending on the particular control task being executed at that time. Determining the necessary modules and sensors and how they should be integrated together may still be challenging. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] The present invention provides a "machine condition assessment module" that may attach to a control network and is intended to receive dynamic condition data from signal processing engines. The machine condition assessment module provides for a higher-level integration of data from the signal processing engines by executing combinatorial logic to assemble that data into as little as one output indicating the presence and severity of a mechanical or electrical fault or faults in one or more the monitored machines. This output or outputs may, in turn, be communicated over the control network to an industrial controller to be integrated into the control process. [0012] In a preferred embodiment, the machine condition assessment module provides a pre-programmed template that guides the user into connecting the machine condition assessment module to necessary signal processing engines to access requisite processed data and to provide a near turn-key solution to particular machine condition assessment problems, i.e., detecting the presence and severity of specific mechanical and/or electrical faults. [0013] A template is a rule set that specifies specific inputs such as levels of vibration, load, temperature, etc. and comparative logic that evaluates to determine the presence of a specific mechanical or electrical fault. The rule sets may be standard sets provided by the vendor or may be customized rules implemented by the end user. The MCAM will include further logic necessary to evaluate the severity of faults. [0014] Specifically then, the present invention provides a machine condition assessment module having a processor and at least one network interface connecting the processor to a standard control network. A memory communicating with the processor holds at least one stored template program and an operating program executing to identify at least one network address of a signal processing engine of an identified type on the industrial network and to identify at least one network address for an output alarm signal. The operating program executes combinatorial logic associated with the template accepting as arguments dynamic operating condition data from the modules to produce the output signal that is transmitted on the network. [0015] Thus, it is one object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide for simplified implementation of a machine monitoring system that is integrated into an industrial network. The templates allow the signal processing engines to be rapidly and centrally configured using the industrial network and for an alarm signal or the like to be provided directly to a standard industrial controller, for example, over the industrial network, for example, to safely stop machinery or to provide warnings, reports and the like. [0016] The operating program may further identify at least one network address for an I/O module receiving process data related to the control of the machine and the combinatorial logic from the template may accept as arguments the process data. [0017] Thus it is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to enhance the ability to provide monitoring of a machine by accepting standard process data that may reflect the context of operation of the machine. This improved knowledge of the context or global operation of the machine, for example, can allow different vibration signatures to be used in different machine control modes and the like. [0018] The sensor data may be vibration data and the configuration data, for example, may be vibration frequency range or amplitude range in absolute frequency or referenced to a fundamental frequency such as may be a rotation speed of a shaft or the like determined from a tachometer. [0019] It is thus another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to manage high-speed vibration data and the like on a standard industrial network. [0020] A user interface program may be provided prompting the user to provide the needed network addresses for the signal processing engines of the identified type. [0021] It is thus another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide an appliance that may be readily installed and commissioned by those familiar with standard machine condition monitoring or possible control systems. Continue reading about Machinery condition assessment module... 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